Actually, Claude's revelation that the First Saint did not exist did not shock Hao Ren nearly as much as it did Bai Huo and Tutanin.
He had long suspected as much. The First Saint was far too mysterious—even among the Demon Hunters, she seemed bizarre. A legendary figure who had not shown herself for several thousand years, a leader who communicated solely through messengers and attendants, an extreme recluse who never left her room—in light of these deviations from the norm, who would truly dare pat his chest and swear that the First Saint really existed?
Who could say this was not a spiritual symbol meant to reassure people, or merely to comfort themselves?
Bai Huo and Tutanin were the most shaken. Unlike Hao Ren and the other "outsiders," they were genuine Demon Hunters, hardcore members who had been born and raised in the Arctic Fortress. They had grown up listening to the stories of the Saint Group, and the impression of the First Saint as immortal, mighty, and capable of reaching the heavens and touching the earth had taken deep root in their minds. As orthodox Demon Hunters, Bai Huo and Tutanin had never imagined that any Saint might one day disappear, let alone the legendary First Saint, said to be mightier than all the ancient gods and as immortal as the planet itself.
Yet the First Saint had never existed in the first place—she had fallen long before the War of the Gods even began.
But twelve Saints had now been reduced to ashes during the ritual that activated the Sword of Darkness, and the impact of that event seemed to have given Bai Huo and Tutanin some buffer. After their initial shock, they regained their composure, then fixed Claude with stern gazes and asked in unison, "Swear